2012: Ghislaine Maxwell Founds the TerraMar Project
Ghislaine Maxwell establishes the TerraMar Project, an ocean conservation nonprofit that she would use to build social connections and international standing even as she remained associated with Epstein.
People Involved
In 2012, Ghislaine Maxwell established the TerraMar Project, a nonprofit organization focused on ocean conservation and promoting international maritime awareness. The project gave Maxwell a visible, respectable public identity independent of her role as Epstein’s associate.
Through TerraMar, Maxwell spoke at the United Nations multiple times and cultivated connections with environmental advocates, diplomats, and social figures. The project’s legitimate conservation mission provided Maxwell with a platform that helped rehabilitate her public image during a period when Epstein’s association was increasingly controversial.
TerraMar received relatively modest funding and operated primarily as an advocacy and awareness-raising organization. Critics later noted that it provided Maxwell with diplomatic access and social legitimacy at a time when her association with a convicted sex offender might otherwise have limited her movement in elite circles.
The TerraMar Project was dissolved in 2019, shortly after Epstein’s arrest in July of that year. Its dissolution, coming so immediately after Epstein’s arrest, drew attention to the dependency of Maxwell’s public activities on the Epstein-connected network.